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Method 2 of 3: Succeeding Academically

1

Get excellent grades in high school. Get excellent grades in every subject. All of them. Every single one. Astronauts are a smart breed. Math and science are most important, but English, history, and foreign relations have their places, too. It’s best to be as well-rounded as possible. Not only for you, but also because the competition will be fierce. You’ll be going up against the cream of the crop.

Alright, so you don’t have the power to stop time. Since you’re not a machine, concentrate on math and science — you’ll be dealing with those for at least the next decade of your career training.

2

Be a stellar student at a good university. A bachelor’s degree in math, physics, engineering, or science from a reputable (accredited) school is required. Don’t get distracted by college social life — your grades should be your number one concern.

Look into the ROTC programs, especially those of the Air Force and Navy at your college of choice. Your ultimate goal in the military is to be a test pilot, because they have the most experience flying experimental aircraft.

3

Complete ≥ 3 years of experience work. This can be in the form of professional experience or in the form of a degree. Should you choose to get a degree, know that a master’s counts as 1 year of experience and a PhD as 3, regardless of how long it takes you to complete these degrees.

If you have experience in piloting, you must complete at least 1,000 hours of pilot-in-command time in jet aircraft. Be sure you also have flight test experience.

Should you choose to simply get professional experience, get a job related to something an astronaut would have to do. Examples include navigation, piloting, working with computers, chemistry/biology, or commanding a ship. You should also note that teaching is an important part of being an astronaut, and thus teachers (both college and K-12) are encouraged to apply. [6]

Before he founded one of the fastest-growing companies in the U.S., Josh Manion was an experienced international chess master and was ranked as one of the top 80 players in the U.S.

Manion has attributed a large portion of his success with his company, digital-marketing platform Ensighten, to his involvement with chess. Mr. Manion has applied many of the lessons he has learned from the game to guide his business decisions.

“Chess was instrumental in establishing the right rigor for the way that you problem solve and approach business and life,” he says.

Here are three examples that Manion says have helped him become a better business owner.

1. If you see a good move, you should wait. There might be a better one coming soon.

Inexperienced chess players often jump at an opportunity to take an opponent’s pawn instantly, according to Manion. They’ll stop their search for their move because they’ve located one. In business, you need to make sure that you’re looking at the whole field and actually making your choices based on complete information.

2. Winning requires you to plan many moves ahead.

Too many entrepreneurs try to start businesses without having a very long-term way to create a viable company. They may get some traction or raise a first round of funding, but they don’t actually thought through the later steps of the plan, Manion says.

3. In chess, you have to manage your time or you can lose–even with the better position. The same can be said for cash in business.

In chess, you have a finite amount of time to make a moves. It doesn’t really matter what’s happening on the board. If you lose on time, you’re done. That has a strong correlation to cash in startups. It doesn’t matter if you have the best product. If you run out of cash along the way, you can’t go on.

1. Be a citizen of a country with a space agency that is capable of sending humans to space. Russia, China, and the USA are the front runners.

2. Be the right age. The ESA is seeking candidates who are between 27 and 37 years old. NASA is less stringent; there are no known age restrictions, but the past astronauts are between the ages of 26 and 46. The average age is 34.

3. Be the right height. The ESA only accepts candidates who are between 5′ to 6’2 1/2″. With NASA, they seek men and women between 5’2″ and 6’3″.

4. Pass the physical. In order to become an astronaut, your near and far vision must be correctable to 20/20. As for your health, your blood pressure cannot be above 140/90 when in a sitting position.

5. Speak English.

6. Learn how to swim and swim well. Because of gravity, day-to-day air living isn’t great for simulating the universe. Some of your training will be done underwater.

Public speaking is such an important part of being an entrepreneur. It is important to not fill your speech with place holder words. Here are 4 easy tips to help avoid this filler language.

Hear Yourself Using Filler These Words: If you ever listen to a recording of a call where you say “Um,” too much, you will have a very natural urge to cringe. This is an important step in helping yourself remove filler words from your language. Once you start hearing yourself filling this silence with “Um,” you will start to notice when others do it too.

Chunk Your Info: One thing that is for sure – we are most likely to have rambling speech when we lack a strong plan for organizing these ideas.

Make Eye Contact. It happens to become more awkward to use filler words when making full eye contact with a person.

Pre-plan Your Transitions. One of the main functions of “Um” is to indicate to your audience that you are not done talking yet. As an alternative, have some transitions to use in any presentation or meeting.